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Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf is an ancient and powerful New God from Apokolips[http://comicbook.com/dc/2017/07/10/justice-league-ciarin-hinds-steppenwolf-goal/ Ciaran Hinds Reveals Steppenwolf's Main Goal - Comic Book Movie], serving as the herald to his uncle Darkseid,[https://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/justice-league-wonder-woman-get-new-plot-synopsis Justice League & Wonder Woman get new plot synopsis - Cosmic Book News] and leader of Apokolips's army of Parademons.[http://collider.com/justice-league-movie-villains-mother-boxes/ ‘Justice League’ Villains and Mother Boxes Teased by Zack Snyder - Collider] Biography Apokoliptian Crusade Steppenwolf was born many millennia ago on the distant planet of Apokolips eventually becoming the herald and second-in-command of his warlord uncle Darkseid. As millennia passed, Steppenwolf would proceed to carry out Darkseid's bidding by invading and taking over other worlds. In the process, he would encounter and battle members of the Green Lantern Corps resistance, and ultimately would prevail every time. On his first Earth stint, he easily took out and killed an alien Green Lantern who came to the aid of the Amazons. Invasion of Earth During the Earth invasion over 30,000 years ago, his master Darkseid ordered Steppenwolf to conquer Earth, and he faced the united alliance of human, Amazon and Atlantean armies, along with at least one Green Lantern, as well as Zeus, Ares, and Artemis of the Old Gods. Steppenwolf begn to combine the Mother Boxes into the Unity, in order to terraform the planet into an extension of Apokolips, and convert humans into Parademons. Ultimately, however, while Steppenwolf successfully slays the Green Lantern, his invasion fails - his battle ships are brought down by Artemis, and Ares wounds him in combat, while Zeus blasts apart the Unity and defeats Steppenwolf, forcing the New God into retreat without enough time to retreat the Mother Boxes. Darkseid viewed this defeat humiliating, and exiled Steppenwolf until the latter could reclaim the lost Mother Boxes and conquer Earth, thereby restoring his honor. Steppenwolf was hesitant to re-invade quickly, however, knowing that the Old Gods would only repel him again, so he bided his time, waiting until Earth was free of sufficiently powerful defenders. After the Old Gods' deaths he still waited, due to Earth now being protected by the godlike alien Superman, who could also potentially repel him. It is believed that Steppenwolf learned of Superman's death when contacted by Lex Luthor from Scout Ship 0344, and thus was finally ready to invade again, which Lex gleefully proclaimed to Batman. Communion of Earth After Lex Luthor accessed Scout Ship 0344's database, he made contact with Steppenwolf on Apokolips, the New God teaching Lex of three important Mother Boxes on Earth. However, Lex was interrupted, breaking contact, Steppenwolf then began his journey to Earth to search for the Mother Boxes, bringing with him a vast army of Parademons. Return to Earth After battling against the unified armies of the humans, the Green Lanterns and the Amazons and after that he was banished from Earth thanks to the armies, Steppenwolf had stayed for a long time at Apokolips. However, in the present, the world is in mourning following the death of Superman. Sensing humanity's fear, Steppenwolf and his Parademons return to Earth to resume their hunt for the Mother Boxes through kidnapping several employees of S.T.A.R. Labs, which is in possession of one of the boxes. Having investigated the kidnappings and encountering a Parademon himself, Batman decides to move forward in recruiting his planned team of metahumans as he believes an invasion is coming. Assault on Themyscira Steppenwolf manages to retrieve the Mother Box from Themyscira, prompting Queen Hippolyta to warn her daughter Wonder Woman. She joins Batman's group and informs him about Steppenwolf and the Mother Boxes. The two of them fail to persuade Aquaman and Cyborg, but manage to recruit Flash into the team. Cyborg later joins the group after his father Silas Stone is among those kidnapped, and Steppenwolf attacks Atlantis to retrieve the second Mother Box. Skirmish Beneath Gotham The team later receives intel from Commissioner James Gordon that the Parademons are traveling underground, and conclude that Steppenwolf's army is based in an abandoned facility. Although the group manages to rescue the kidnapped employees, the facility is flooded during combat, which traps the team until Aquaman rescues them, having decided to join them after Steppenwolf's attack on Atlantis. Superman Returns Cyborg retrieves the last Mother Box from S.T.A.R. Labs for the group to analyze. Batman decides to use the Mother Box to resurrect Superman not only to help them fight Steppenwolf's army, but also to restore hope in humanity. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are hesitant about the idea, but Batman forms a secret contingency plan. Clark Kent's body is exhumed and placed in the waters of the Kryptonian ship, and Allen provides a strong energy blast to activate the Box and resurrect Superman. Superman, however, possesses few memories, and he attacks the group after Cyborg accidentally launches a projectile at him. On the verge of being killed by Superman, Batman enacts his contingency plan: Lois Lane. Superman calms down and leaves with Lois to his family home where he reflects and tries to recover his memories. With the last Mother Box unguarded, Steppenwolf retrieves it with ease. The Final Battle Without Superman to aid them, the remaining five heroes travel to a remote location in Russia, where Steppenwolf plans to unite the boxes once again and reshape the world for his lord and master. The team fights their way through the Parademons to reach Steppenwolf, although they are unable to stage a significant enough distraction for Cyborg to separate the boxes. Superman arrives and assists Flash in evacuating the city, and ultimately aids Cyborg in separating the Mother Boxes. Defeat Following the separation, an enraged Steppenwolf enters the Apokolipian construct, where he is confronted by Superman, (who after battling both Wonder Woman and Aquaman), easily overpowers by the New God. The Kryptonian uses his ice breath to freeze Steppenwolf’s axe, which Wonder Woman shatters the weapon with her own sword. Bleeding and thus knowing he has been defeated, he is overwhelmed with fear, thus seeing as his parademons begin to attack him. Turning on him, he fights them as he and Parademons alike, are whisked away via portal/boomtube, leaving nothing left him but only his helmet. Personality Steppenwolf had become old and tired after millennia of invading, taking over, and terraforming other worlds with the Unity, while also creating more Parademons from the native inhabitants. He seeks to be free of Apokolips' ruler, Darkseid, and to regain his place of respect among the New Gods, but Steppenwolf is neither foolish, nor powerful enough to disobey or challenge Darkseid. In fact, Steppenwolf seems to admire his master, as he loudly proclaims that he will conquer Earth in the name of Darkseid and the Unity. Thus, Steppenwolf continued to serve Darkseid as the latter's right hand, and continued to conquers to invade other worlds for him, eventually carrying out the Invasion of Earth. He appears to also have a disdain for Kryptonians and Green Lanterns, due to having battled them in the past. Steppenwolf is an extremely ruthless, destructive, cold, and sinister being, showing neither fear, nor mercy towards his enemies and prisoners, most notable in the fact that he utilizes the Unity to transform planets' native inhabitants into loyal and soulless Parademons. Much like General Zod, Steppenwolf has trained his entire life to become a great warrior and defeat his enemies. Hence, Steppenwolf relishes battle, and never holds back his divine might. Indeed, when none of the kidnapped scientists are willing to reveal the Mother Boxes' location, Steppenwolf intends to murder them, only being stopped by the timely intervention of Flash and Cyborg. Steppenwolf is not only merciless, but also sadistic, being unimpressed with the S.T.A.R. Labs scientists' pleas to return to their families, sadistically mocking Wonder Woman with the deaths of her fellow Amazons and the Old Gods, and gleefully predicting that the Mother Box-empowered Cyborg is destined to become "a creature of chaos." Much like Lex Luthor, Steppenwolf hates the mere idea of losing, so despite having his ships destroyed by Artemis, being wounded by Ares, and defeated by Zeus, he remains determined to fight on, which forces his own Parademon army to drag Steppenwolf away from certain death. Steppenwolf is bitter at his first defeat, so he jumps at the chance to invade Earth again, as soon as the Mother Boxes alert him of the deaths of Zeus, Ares, Artemis, and Superman, since now the planet lacks defenders powerful enough to repel him. However, with Superman's timely resurrection, Steppenwolf is defeated again, and when Wonder Woman breaks his battle axe, Steppenwolf feels fear for the first time in millennia - the fear of failure, and of never having the chance to regain his place among the New Gods. Sensing this, Steppenwolf's Parademon army is again forced to drag their leader away from certain death. The only things Steppenwolf seems to care about is returning to Apokolips after exile, and regaining his standing among the New Gods. Additionally, he seems to adore the Unity, affectionately referring to it as "Mother", and he is delighted to see that Cyborg has been "born of her", proclaiming that Cyborg is destined to become "a creature of chaos", like the soulless Parademons. However, Steppenwolf also has a grudging respect for individuals of exceptional bravery, like Silas Stone (who talks back to his threats) and Wonder Woman (who fearlessly battles him). Powers and abilities Powers= *'New God physiology:' As a New God, Steppenwolf is a phenomenally powerful divine being, to the point that he has conquered many planets with his Parademon army, and it took the combined might of Amazon, Atlantean, and human armies, at least one Green Lantern, as well as three Old Gods to drive Steppenwolf and his forces off of Earth during the first Invasion of Earth. The only known beings to at least rival his might are Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Artemis, and also the combined might of several Green Lanterns, while Darkseid, Zeus, Ares and Superman are known to surpass him. **'Immortality:' As a New God, Steppenwolf is still alive in the 21st century, despite being over 30 millennia old. **'Super strength:' Steppenwolf has a tremendous level of superhuman strength, which is further amplified by his electro ax, surpassing that of Cyborg and Aquaman rivaled only by that of Wonder Woman, and is only surpassed by the likes of Zeus, Ares, Artemis and Superman. Hence, Steppenwolf was able to overpower the Amazon and Atlantean forces during the first Invasion of Earth, defeated and slayed numerous more Amazons on Themyscira, swiftly tore off Cyborg's biomechatronic limbs, easily slayed a Green Lantern, overpowered Mera's hydrokenesis attack, swiftly overpowered Aquaman (collapsing a large Atlantean structure in the process), defeated Wonder Woman in every one of their prolonged duels, gained the upper hand against the combined might of Wonder Woman and Aquaman. ***'Super leaps:' Steppenwolf's incredible strength extends to his legs, making him able to jump immense vertical and horizontal distances, shown during his battle with the Amazons on Themyscira, with him able to easily catch up to Hippolyta and regain his Mother Box with a few leaps. **'Super speed:' Steppenwolf can move at considerable superhuman speeds, going toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman and Aquaman's speed during their final fight, even outmaneuvering them on several occasions, despite his muscular physique and heavy armor. While underwater, Steppenwolf's combat speed is barely affected, as he swiftly overcomes Aquaman, despite the latter catching him off-guard. However, his speed is still no match for that of Superman or Flash. ***'Super reflexes:' Steppenwolf was able to easily deflect an Amazon arrow shot at him, and he later even catches a missile fired at him from the Knightcrawler. **'Nigh-invulnerability:' Steppenwolf is incredibly durable, which, combined with his armor which makes him almost invulnerable. Hence, Steppenwolf was only irritated by Mera's hydrokinesis attacks, was only slightly affected by direct blasts from Cyborg's arm cannon (though it caused him momentary burning pain), withstood mighty blows from Wonder Woman and [Aquaman, by Aquaman stabbing him in the chest with his trident, and later by Wonder Woman slashing his leg with her Sword of Athena, Steppenwolf wasn't much affected by those wounds. Indeed, Steppenwolf was only ever visibly hurt by a blast of Zeus' divine lightning, Ares' hacking blow, and by Superman's tremendous blows, a single one of which made him bleed. **'Aquatic Respiration': Steppenwolf, much like an Atlantean, is able to breathe underwater, thus successfully invading Atlantis and regaining another Mother Box. |-| Abilities= *'Expert leader:' Steppenwolf, due to him being Darkseid's herald and second-in-command on Apokolips, as well as having millennia of experience invading and taking over other worlds, is an extremely skilled leader, able to successfully command a vast Parademon army in both of his attempted first invasion of Earth, with Steppenwolf's forces only being defeated when Earth amassed Amazon, Atlantean and human armies, as well as a Green Lantern and three Old Gods into a united force powerful enough to send him into retreat. *'Master tactician:' Steppenwolf, despite usually winning through sheer divine power and the massive size of his Parademon forces, is a very skilled tactician as well. Hence, he bides his time, and only attacks Earth again after the Mother Boxes alert him of the deaths of all of the Old Gods and Superman, since only then does the planet lack defenders powerful enough to repel him. Steppenwolf also almost kills the Justice League with sheer tactics - he catches a Knightcrawler missile and redirects it towards the harbor wall (while boom-tubing himself), with only Aquaman's timely arrival saving the League from drowning. However, Steppenwolf's overconfidence makes him unable to account for the resurrection of Superman, which leads to his second defeat on Earth. *'Master combatant': Steppenwolf is an extremely skilled, fierce, and formidable combatant (particularly with his fearsome electro axe), with centuries of combat experience. As such, Steppenwolf was able to easily slay a Green Lantern, to swiftly overpower numerous Amazons, Cyborg, Mera, and Aquaman, to defeat Wonder Woman in each one of their one-on-one duels though he notably got wounded in the process. Indeed, the only known ones to ever defeat Steppenwolf in a one-on-one fight are Zeus, Ares and Superman. *'Expert swimmer': Steppenwolf is an extremely skilled swimmer, on par with an Atlantean, as he was notably able to overcome Mera's underwater whirlpool, and swim close enough to overpower her. While underwater, Steppenwolf's combat speed is barely affected, as he swiftly overcomes Aquaman, despite the latter catching him off-guard. |-| Weaknesses= *'Fear:' Steppenwolf, despite being fearsome himself and initially fearless, first showed signs of fear after getting overpowered by Superman, having his battle axe destroyed, losing to the Justice League, and failing to invade Earth. Sensing his fear of failure, Steppenwolf's own Parademon army are forced to grab and carry Steppenwolf back to Apokolips. *'Overconfidence:' Steppenwolf's other main weakness, as stated by Wonder Woman, is his overestimation of himself, which is what ultimately what lead to his defeat during both of his invasions of Earth. However, it should be noted that this arrogance and pride are not unfounded, as Steppenwolf truly is extremely powerful - his arrogance only becomes a serious detriment when he faces equivalently powerful opponents like Wonder Woman, Ares, Zeus or Superman, since despite beginning to lose, Steppenwolf refuses to back down from fighting them, and his Parademon allies thereby are forced to grab and carry Steppenwolf away from certain death. |-| Equipment= *'Electro axe (formerly):' Steppenwolf's primary offensive weapon, which the New God uses to blast and obliterate much of the area surrounding him at a given time. It also notably amplified the strength of Steppenwolf to the point where he could go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman. The ax's red-hued energy is also capable of infecting humans, turning their skin a pale grey, while lengthening and sharpening their teeth, seemingly transforming them into the zombified Parademon soldiers of Apokolips. In addition, the ax is seemingly indestructible, as it can go up against Wonder Woman's weaponry. However, it was ultimately destroyed after being frozen by Superman's Arctic breath, which made it become brittle, thus allowing Wonder Woman to shatter it with her Sword of Athena. *'Mother Boxes (formerly):' Steppenwolf's other main weapons, which, when fused together as the "Unity", terraform any planet into the likeness of his native planet Apokolips. Steppenwolf successfully does so to many planets, only failing on Earth, twice. While not in his possession after the first Invasion of Earth, the MotherBoxes lit up after Superman's death, alerting their former master of how Earth now lacks defenders strong enough to repel him (due to the Old Gods also having all perished, and no Green Lanthers being close to Earth), and how the planet has now been plunged into fear. The Unity is pried apart first by Zeus' lightning, and then by Superman and Cyborg. Relationships Family *New Gods **Darkseid – uncle and superior Allies *Parademons – subordinates and saviors *Lex Luthor – informant Enemies *Olympians **Zeus † **Artemis † **Ares † *Amazons **Hippolyta **Antiope † *Atlantis **Mera **Atlantean Royal Guard *Green Lantern Corps **Unidentified Green Lantern † - Victim *Justice League **Superman **Batman **Wonder Woman **Aquaman **Cyborg **Flash Trivia *Steppenwolf and Lex Luthor are the only two main antogonists of the DCEU to survive their initial debut. *Steppenwolf's character was constructed completely from CGI, with actor Ciarán Hinds wearing only a motion-capture suit for his performance. **Hinds also didn't perform any of his scenes with any of the cast. Behind the Scenes *In the original cut of Justice League, after collecting the Atlantean Mother Box, Steppenwolf "talks" to the Mother Box, which contained his mother, Heggra, whom he was attempting to release to defeat his uncle, Darkseid. *In Zack Snyder's cut, Steppenwolf returns to Apokolips and is confronted by his uncle Darkseid, whokill him.Read Zack Snyder's Version and All Deleted Scenes of Justice League References Category:Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice characters Category:Justice League characters Category:Villains Category:Gods